The source of water used for drilling in the Alberta tar sands could dry up in the coming decades, according to new research. The questionable future of the Athabasca River threatens the longevity of fossil fuel extraction in the world’s third-largest crude oil reserve.
Scientists at the University of Regina and University of Western Ontario in Canada looked at 900 years of tree ring data and found water levels have dwindled along the 765-mile river at various points throughout its history.
The analysis, published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the waterway has shrunk over the past 50 years as global warming has melted the glaciers that feed it. It also found the region has experienced several droughts that have lasted more than a decade in the last few centuries. Such a drought could likely happen in the near future, the scientists said.
The Alberta tar sands, which cover 55,000 square miles in western Canada, are estimated to contain approximately 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen, a sticky, thick form of petroleum that can be extracted through both surface mining and drilling. Water is used to separate the bitumen from surrounding sediment, as well as to create steam that heats the oil so it flows into production wells.
Tar sands projects are already threatened by a slump in oil prices, as well as pending global action to address climate change. Tar sands drilling is a prominent target of environmental groups and climate activists because the oil emits an estimated three to four times more carbon dioxide when burned than conventional crude. Its water use only adds to the environmental costs.
China followed up its promise to create the world’s largest cap-and-trade program with yet another significant climate policy announcement: It will commit to spending $3.1 billion to help developing countries slash their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
China’s financial commitment, along with its new carbon market, are part of a comprehensive package of climate measures that were announced at a joint press conference featuring US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, DC.
The new pledge, emerging from high-profile bilateral talks between the two countries, “is a game changer in international climate politics,” says Li Shuo, a climate policy analyst for Greenpeace. “It is a drastic increase from China’s previous finance commitments.”
“In terms of scale, 3.1 billion USD could even surpass the US pledge to the Green Climate Fund, which still faces a significant battle in the US Congress.”
Friday’s deal is “enormous in terms of the signal it sends to business and others investing in technology that the world has changed.”
The Cradle of Forestry invites people of all ages to celebrate the heritage of western North Carolina during the annual Forest Festival Day on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015 from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. This is the Cradle’s largest event of the year.
This activity-filled, family event commemorates the traditions of mountain living and craft in a unique and beautiful setting. More than 100 forestry students, traditional craftsmen and exhibitors will be on site during the celebration. During the event, eight colleges will compete for a trophy in the 20th Annual John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet, organized by Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC.
Festival-goers can cheer as college forestry students compete during the Woodsmen’s Meet that has the flavor of an old-time lumberjack competition. Students will test their skills in a number of events including archery, axe throwing, crosscut sawing and pole felling. Spectators of the Woodsmen’s Meet are encouraged to bring a chair or blanket for comfort.
Due to the growing popularity of the event and the limited space for spectators, the Woodmen’s Meet is held in the open field at the Pink Beds Picnic Area. The larger space allows for increased safety of participants and spectators while at the same time providing a better view for those wanting to see all the action.
The Pink Beds Picnic Area and Pink Beds trailhead will be closed to non-event use for the day. The Pink Beds Trail can be accessed from FS Road 1206 via the Barnett Branch Trail and from the South Mills River gauging station area off Wolf Ford Road FS 476.
Traditional crafters and exhibitors will congregate along the trails. These include demonstrations of whittling, wood carving and turning, horse and mule packing, blacksmithing, primitive skills and creating corn husk dolls. Festival goers can learn to cut a tree “cookie” with a cross cut saw to take home.
Falconry demonstrations will be from 11:00 to 3:00. Old fashioned wagon rides will be offered from 11:00 to 2:00. For a complete list of activities, exhibitors and demonstrations during Forest Festival Day visit www.cradleofforestry.com, or call the Cradle at (828) 877-3130.
Accents on Asheville will provide a shuttle between the Forest Discovery Center and the Pink Beds for those unable to walk the trail to the Woodsmen’s Meet. Hob Nob at the Cradle will sell food.
Forest heritage is a focal point of the festival, and the Cradle of Forestry is the birthplace of modern forestry in America. Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck, forester for George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate from 1895 – 1909, founded America’s first forestry school in 1898 and used the present Cradle of Forestry area as its summer campus. At that time the word “forestry” was a vague and new idea in this nation. Schenck encouraged his students and timberland owners to manage forests for the future. Forest Festival Day celebrates this heritage and our forest lands today.
Admission for this event is $6.00 for ages 16 and older; $3.00 for youth ages 4-15, and holders of America the Beautiful and Golden Age passes. Children under 4 years old are admitted free. The Cradle of Forestry is located four miles south of Parkway Milepost 412 on Hwy. 276 in the Pisgah National Forest, six miles north of Looking Glass Falls.
Few things strike fear into the hearts of politicians like a disgruntled grandparent entering a voting booth. Seniors wield immense political power in the United States, a fact made plain by their voting record. In the 2014 midterm elections, a year of historically low voter turnout, nearly 59 percent of adults aged 65 and older pulled the lever on Election Day. Just 23 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds bothered to do the same. It’s numbers like these that have made Social Security and Medicare the third rail of American politics.
Recently, dozens of retirees descended on Capitol Hill to advocate for climate action. Organized by the Conscious Elders Network, the Grandparents Climate Action Day brought together seniors from around the country. Following a day of training, during which renowned NASA climatologist James Hansen spoke to those assembled, the gray-haired activists headed for the Hill. They urged their representatives to support the Clean Power Plan and they advocated for pricing carbon emissions using systems like cap and dividend.
Although casual observers of politics will note that common sense often carries little weight on Capitol Hill, lawmakers answer to political pressure. They answer to the threats of party leaders, to the pleas of rich financial backers, and to the angry letters of aggrieved constituents.
Since emerald ash borer was first detected in Michigan in 2002, the non-native invasive beetle has killed tens of millions of ash trees across the U.S., and continues to infest new regions, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Within its native range in Asia, emerald ash borer is attacked by a variety of predators including several species of parasitoid wasps that specialize on the beetle’s eggs or larvae. Because these wasps are expected to play a role in maintaining low emerald ash borer populations in Asia, three species have been introduced into North America as biocontrol agents. “There is great interest in knowing how effective these introductions have been in reducing the population growth rates of emerald ash borer in North America,” says U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientist Michael Ulyshen.
In addition to the introduced biocontrol agents, some native wasps have also been shown to parasitize emerald ash borer larvae, and birds – especially woodpeckers – eat the larvae and pupae. From 2007 to 2010, the researchers released thousands of non-native predatory wasps in experimental release plots in forests of southern Michigan.
Both native enemies and introduced parasitic wasps play important roles in suppressing emerald ash borer populations. Non-native parasitic wasps can help prevent widespread ash tree death in newly infested forests, and the scientists recommend that they be released as soon as the presence of emerald ash borer has been detected. The non-native wasps also keep emerald ash borer populations low in forests that have already been invaded.
For lovers of the Blue Ridge Parkway, every day is public lands day. But on September 26, 2015 why not make it official with a volunteer project?
National Public Lands Day is billed as the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands.
Last year, more than 175,000 volunteers and park visitors celebrated at more than 2,100 public land sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Along the Parkway, the Roanoke chapter of FRIENDS of the BRP plans a work day at Chestnut Ridge Overlook starting at 9 a.m.
The Asheville chapter is hosting an environmental group from Montreat College installing fire rings and doing maintenance at Mount Pisgah campground.
Visit the FRIENDS website for more chapter information.
Also, this Saturday, September 26, celebrate National Public Lands Day by heading to a national park to play, learn, serve, or work. The 22nd annual event will feature free admission to every National Park Service site, as well as special activities and volunteer work projects across the country.
Deep in the wilds of British Columbia lies a rugged valley – cherished alpine backcountry that deserves permanent protection. At the headwaters of the Columbia River, Jumbo Creek cascades out of deep snowpack, past crumbling glacial ice, wildflowers, and grizzly tracks. The Jumbo Valley has long been revered for its beauty, and to the Ktunaxa Nation, it is known as Qat’muk, home of the grizzly bear spirit. Part of an important international wildlife corridor, the Jumbo Valley is one of only two areas in North America where bears can freely roam between Canada and the U.S.
But, for nearly 25 years, local people — First Nations, conservationists, backcountry skiers and snowboarders have fought a proposed large-scale ski resort deep in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia. After two decades of opposition, what more will it take to keep Jumbo wild for good?
More than half the members of the U.S. Senate are urging chamber leadership to pass a bill reauthorizing a federal conservation program before it expires at the end of the month. Fifty-two senators, including 12 Republicans, signed a letter from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) calling on Senate leadership to push a Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) bill this month.
The lawmakers said the Senate should consider passing even a temporary authorization for the program if a deal can’t immediately be reached on extending the program long-term.
“We urge the inclusion of a short-term reauthorization of the LWCF in the coming days before the program expires on September 30, and seek your commitment to work with us to achieve permanent authorization and consistent funding of the LWCF in any legislation poised to become law this year,” the senators wrote in their letter, dated Sept. 17. “We must act quickly to renew this program, and we look forward to working with you toward that end.”
The LWCF, a $300 million federal program that pays for land acquisition and recreation projects on federal land, traditionally wins bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. But House Republicans are looking to reform the program this year before reauthorizing it. The fund’s charter expires on Sept. 30.
“Investments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike,” the group wrote. “Lasting authorization and consistent funding of the LWCF will help ensure that the Fund plays the strongest possible role in revitalizing local communities.”
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash announced that Steve Kloster has been selected as the new Chief Ranger. Prior to this position, Kloster was the Tennessee District Ranger, as well as serving as interim Chief Ranger during several temporary assignments totaling 27 months. Kloster succeeds Clayton Jordan who was recently selected as Smokies Deputy Superintendent in April.
As Chief Ranger, Kloster will oversee up to 75 people in the Resource and Visitor Protection Division who perform law enforcement duties, emergency medical services, search and rescue operations, campground fee collection, dispatching, and backcountry operations. Kloster brings a wealth of experience to the position after serving in the Smokies since 1988 as a Park Ranger, Backcountry Ranger, and Cosby Area Supervisor at diverse park locations including Abrams Creek, Greenbrier, Cosby, and the Little River District.
“Steve’s broad field experience, extensive institutional knowledge of the park, strong community partner ties, and demonstrated ability to work well with colleagues across divisional lines makes him a great asset to both the Resource and Visitor Protection Division and the management team,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash.
Kloster has served as the Operation Section Chief for the National Park Service Eastern Incident Management Team at commemorative special events and emergency incidents across the southeast. He has also served as the Incident Commander in major search and rescue operations in the park.
America’s hundreds of protected Wilderness areas have names as varied as their landscapes, with wide-ranging origin stories to boot.
Names matter. The word “wilderness” still wrongly carries connotations of danger, desolation, even abandonment (consider the way we use it in popular idioms). This was all the more true in 15th- through early-20th-century America.
The Wilderness Act, 50 years old in 2014, was a monumental piece of legislation, but also a broadside against that misguided understanding; suddenly, the mightiest nation on earth was officially endorsing the idea that the “wild” could be valuable and restorative, and should therefore be preserved. Today, some form of this belief is self-evident to most Americans.
The individual Wilderness areas that sprung from that law have carried a truly diverse array of names, from Absaroka-Beartooth to Zion. Typically, the pieces of land encompassed by these designations are identified with beloved wilderness champions, indigenous legends, native animals or descriptions of the landscape itself.
Sometimes, the name is something more obscure altogether, an ancient jumble of syllables or an out-of-place adjective. Like wilderness itself, these titles beckon the curious and, once explored, often defy expectations.
Here are a few of the more unique names, along with their origin stories…
It’s been at least half a millennium since California has been this dry.
The snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains — which provides nearly a third of the state’s water supply — is the lowest it has been in 500 years, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change.
The researchers compared blue oak tree rings during known time periods of precipitation, snowpack, and temperatures — beginning in 1930 — and found that the data accurately reflected snowpack levels. They then looked at rings going back 500 years to chart California’s historic snowpack supply. The findings revealed the “exceptional character” of California’s ongoing, four-year drought. As of April 1, 2015, the Sierra Nevada snowpack was only 5 percent its historical average, the researchers found.
It’s not that California has never had this little rain, explained Soumaya Belmecheri, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. It’s that the high temperatures have combined with the drought to reduce snowpack. “What is different is the record high temperatures that exacerbated or made this drought more severe,” Belmecheri said.
High temperatures affect the quality of precipitation — whether water falls as snow or rain — and whether the snowpack has a chance to stick around. “The snowpack is like a reservoir. It’s a water bank,” Belmecheri said. “If this kind of drought in California is expected to become more common in the future, you can imagine all the impacts it will have for water in California.”
Top administration officials wrote Congress this week to urge it–once again–to change the way it budgets for firefighting in light of the disastrous wildfire season in the western United States.
The Agriculture Department just informed lawmakers this week that it will have to transfer $250 million to fighting the forest fires now raging, which brings this fiscal year’s emergency spending total to $700 million. Unlike other disaster spending, caused by tornadoes and hurricanes, the federal government must stay within existing budget constraints and divert money from other programs to pay for firefighting.
In a letter to 16 Senate and House members, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan wrote that the current funding method is no longer sustainable. The administration has proposed allowing agencies to bust their discretionary budget caps when fire suppression exceeds 70 percent of the 10-year average, but Congress has yet to approve the budgeting change.
“With the dramatic growth in wildland fire over the last three decades and an expected doubling again by mid-century, it only makes sense that Congress begin treating catastrophic wildfire as the natural disaster that it is,” the three wrote.
In order to pay for additional firefighting expenses, Agriculture and Interior have been diverting funds that ordinarily would go toward recreation, research, watershed protection, rangeland management and forest restoration.
A southwest Colorado man was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison for trashing Uncompahgre National Forest land, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Forest Service and the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office announced. Benjamin Yoho, 41 of Telluride and Ouray, was convicted after a one-day bench trial before U.S. Magistrate David West in Durango on charges of massive littering in an area north of Telluride.
Officials said from October 2014 to April, Yoho lived and had a structure on Forest System land and transported several items from the Telluride “Free Box” where he littered a large area near the Jud Wiebe Trail. In May, 48 volunteers and numerous crews from the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control removed about 8,500 pounds of debris from the forest by helicopter.
Yoho was convicted of residing on National Forest system lands, maintaining a structure in the National Forest and leaving debris in the forest. He will serve one year of probation after his release from prison.
“This was no ordinary case of littering in the National Forest — this was full-scale trashing of the public lands and merited a term of incarceration,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement.
A judge has rejected a bid by North Carolina’s environment agency to block Duke Energy, the country’s largest energy company, from removing toxic coal ash from more plants than required under a new state law.
Duke Energy has asked to add three power plants to the list of four plants where they will begin scooping the ash, which is leaking arsenic, lead and other pollutants into waterways. In May, the company plead guilty to environmental crimes over a North Carolina power plant’s coal ash spill into a river and management of coal ash basins in the state.
Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway announced the order after the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources sought to stop Duke Energy from going beyond a new state law requiring it to excavate pits at four plants.
The state agency argued Duke Energy doesn’t have infinite money and time to clean out the problem sites. The company shouldn’t decide which get top priority without public input, agency attorney Anita LeVeaux said. The agency also is trying to limit costs that Duke Energy later could seek to pass along to electricity customers, agency spokeswoman Crystal Feldman said.
The state stepped up its regulations last year after coal ash collected at the utility’s Eden power plant spilled into the Dan River, coating 70 miles of the waterway in toxic, gray sludge that turned it into “toxic soup,” according to environmentalists. The state law requires Duke Energy to stop pollution leaking from all 14 of its North Carolina coal ash dumps by 2029.
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis issued a policy memorandum prohibiting the use of electronic smoking devices in all places where tobacco smoking is prohibited in national parks.
“Protecting the health and safety of our visitors and employees is one of the most critical duties of the National Park Service,” said Director Jarvis. “We are therefore extending the restrictions currently in place protecting visitors and employees from exposure to tobacco smoke to include exposure to vapor from electronic smoking devices.”
Vapor exhaled from electronic cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) contains nicotine at a level roughly one-tenth of that found in second-hand smoke. Nicotine is highly addictive, toxic to developing fetuses, and impairs fetal brain and lung development. Recent public health studies suggest that ENDS aerosols can also contain heavy metals, ultrafine particulates, and cancer-causing agents.
The policy memorandum establishes National Park Service guidance on the use of ENDS and is effective immediately. Under this guidance, the use of ENDS will not be allowed within all facilities and vehicles that are Government owned or leased, and within all national park concessions facilities.
From Tuesday until Saturday, September 15-19, 2015 South African citizens will have free access to most of the country’s national parks. This is in celebration of the 10th annual South African National Parks week currently running under the theme “Know your national parks”.
The week was officially inaugurated by Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa at Limpopo’s Marakele National Park. South African National Parks (SANParks) has partnered with First National Bank and Total South Africa to promote access to 19 of the 21 national parks under SANParks’ management, including the Kruger National Park.
The free access to the country’s national parks will include game drives, guided walks and talks; will be granted on presentation of a valid identity document; and will be limited to day visits only. SANParks CEO Fundisile Mketeni said the majority of South Africans do not visit national parks, hence this week’s campaign encouraging them to do so.
“SANParks started this campaign to encourage all South Africans, especially those from the communities around the parks, to share in what SANParks envisions to be the pride and joy of all South Africans and the world… It is an opportunity to showcase all national parks as key and affordable local holiday destinations which offer a unique and enlightening experience that families and individuals from all backgrounds, cultures, lifestyles and communities could enjoy.”
A new study has confirmed the existence of a positive feedback operating in climate change whereby warming itself may amplify a rise in greenhouse gases resulting in additional warming.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that in addition to the well understood effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth’s temperature, researchers can now confirm directly from ice-core data that the global temperature has a profound effect on atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. This means that as the Earth’s temperature rises, the positive feedback in the system results in additional warming.
It has been known for a while that the Earth has historically had higher levels of greenhouse gases during warm periods than during ice ages. However, it had so-far remained impossible to discern cause and effect from the analysis of gas bubbles contained in ice cores.
Professor Tim Lenton from Geography at the University of Exeter said: “Our new results confirm the prediction of positive feedback from the climate models, the big difference is that now we have independent data based evidence for it.”
State park rangers in western North Carolina apprehended four people recently for plant poaching at the Yellow Mountain State Natural Area in Mitchell County. It was the first such incident in state parks in recent years, though officials say poaching of galax, gensing and other plants is becoming more of an issue.
Four people were given citations Aug. 28, 2015 by Ranger Luke Appling and Superintendent Susan McBean of Grandfather Mountain State Park, which manages the nearby state natural area. McBean said the poachers were caught leaving the area with about 27,000 galax leaves in small bundles.
McBean said, “A big problem is that they were pulling it out by the root with the leaves attached, and this plant takes seven years from seed to producing seed.” She said that while patrolling the 3,111-acre state natural area, Ranger Appling regularly talks with neighbors about strangers in the vicinity and recently noticed a bushwhacked trail and disturbed areas on the mountain. “It was his due diligence in knowing where to go, when to go and what to expect,” she said.
A ground-hugging plant, galax is used in Europe’s floral industry. Collecting galax is not as serious an offense as collecting ginseng, which is a felony, but state parks prohibit any collection of plants or minerals. On a recent hike, McBean found about a dozen Fraser fir and spruce seedlings that had been pulled and then dropped along a trail on Grandfather Mountain.
I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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